


Cole

by elumish



Series: Werewolves 101 [15]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Gen, Professor Stiles Stilinski, Writer Derek Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 08:32:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5701882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elumish/pseuds/elumish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hi. I’m really—thank you. For coming. And talking to me. You’re really attractive. Not that I’m—I’m straight. Not that there’s anything wrong with liking guys. I just—you have a really pronounced jawline, and it’s impressive. I’m going to stop talking now.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cole

**Author's Note:**

> This is Cole's POV of the interview.

Cole’s not sure what to expect when Professor Stilinski gets an expert on the Hale pack to agree to talk to him. Some old academic, maybe, probably some human who likes studying werewolves. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, because Professor Stilinski is awesome, but he’s also in a pack, so he doesn’t exactly count as human.

But humans—non-pack humans—like to research werewolves like they’re some weird other, like how white people used to talk about indigenous people or people from other parts of the world, like they’re not quite bright enough to figure out their society on their own. Humans’ burden.

Professor Stilinski is awesome, though, and he trusts him not to screw him over, so it should go well.

But what he’s not expecting is an email address for dhale@gmail.com--and holy shit, is that D. Hale like _the_ D. Hale, or is that Derek Hale like the one who’s definitely a member of the Hale pack, and either way, how does Stiles know them—and an email asking if he wants to meet at one of the local coffee shops.

So he says yes and starts doing some last minute cramming about territory shift, because there is so much information about it, and he doesn’t want to ask dumb questions. Especially if they’re either D. Hale or Derek Hale, because both of those people are really amazing, and Cole has had a suspicion that they were the same person for a while because of the ridiculous amount of research he’s done on the Hale pack, though he’s not going to ask right now because that’s a kind of weird thing to ask the person. If they are one of the two.

So yeah, he’s going to stop freaking out about this.

Maybe.

Though it is something to freak out about that isn’t the people trying to set fire to his campus, so maybe freaking out about this isn’t that bad.

Also maybe he needs sleep.

Or more coffee.

\--

Cole gets to the coffee shop twenty minutes early, buys a large coffee, sits down, and immediately starts trying not to panic, because wow, he might screw this up, and he doesn’t want to screw this up, and maybe this is a bad idea, and he doesn’t know how to sensitively ask about fucked up topics, and this could go horribly wrong.

He’s facing the door, so he sees it when a werewolf—thirty, maybe, handsome with a little bit of scruff—walks in and looks around. The coffee shop is pretty full—welcome to college, everyone needs caffeine or sugar or both, and they need it now—and so he just kind of stands right in front of the door, peering around for a while. And then Cole sees the werewolf’s nostrils flare, and he turns to look directly at Cole before heading over to him.

He stops right in front of Cole’s table. “You’re Cole?”

“Yeah.”

He nods. “I’m getting coffee.” And then he walks away.

Apparently that’s the expert. Huh.

He gets through the line pretty fast, though Cole has a feeling that’s more because he’s making people nervous enough to rush—and okay, yeah, Cole has pulled that a time or two around humans—and then heads back over with the biggest cup of coffee Cole has seen in a long time (20oz at least) and slides into the chair across from him.

Cole nods to him. “I’m Cole, from the Monroe-Sanchez pack in the Bay Area. Thank you for coming to meet with me.”

The guy takes a long drink of coffee, then says, “Derek Hale from the Hale Pack in New York City.”

Holy shit, this is actually Derek Hale. Like, one of the survivors, Derek Hale. Brother of Laura Hale, who is awesome. “Hi. I’m really—thank you. For coming. And talking to me. You’re really attractive. Not that I’m—I’m straight. Not that there’s anything wrong with liking guys. I just—you have a really pronounced jawline, and it’s impressive. I’m going to stop talking now.”

Derek looks vaguely entertained, which is better than looking horrified. Werewolves tend to be on average less homophobic than humans, but there’s still a huge range, so it’s good that he’s not horrified by the random student he agreed to talk to as a favor for someone he knows. “Thanks. So you’re in Stiles’s Introduction to Werewolves class?”

Cole nods, glad for another topic to latch on to. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m in Werewolves 101.”

“Bitten?”

He would be offended, but it really is a weird thing for him to be taking. “Born, but most of my pack is bitten, so we don’t really have any tradition to build off of.” Derek—holy shit, he’s Derek Hale—nods like that’s a totally normal thing, taking another drink of coffee. “How do you actually know Professor Stilinski?”

To his surprise, Derek smiles. “Professor Stilinski. Huh. We’re dating.”

“You’re—oh. Okay.” So apparently he shouldn’t have been worried about Derek freaking out at his admiring of his jawline. And Professor Stilinski is gay or bi or something other than straight. “That…explains a lot, actually.”

One eyebrow goes up. “What do you mean?”

“A couple of weeks ago”—Derek’s expression shuts down, and huh, that’s weird—“he freaked out on a kid who used the term, uh—actually, I kind of don’t really want to say it, because it’s shitty, but it’s a slur for a human who sleeps with a werewolf. So that makes more sense.”

“Stiles would have that reaction even if he wasn’t in a relationship with me. You have questions?”

Right. Yes. Relevant questions. Good things. “First, I guess, uh, can you tell me a little about your pack? Your pack as it is now, I mean. And your pack as it was before, uh, before the fire, but you can—you don’t have to answer anything you’re not comfortable with. Obviously.”

“My pack as it stands now is made up of me, my uncle Peter, and my alpha and sister, Laura.”

Cole knew that part already, but he writes it down in his notebook anyway. “And was Laura the heir?” Given that the uncle is older, he probably would have taken the mantle if she wasn’t heir, but not necessarily.

“Yeah.”

“And your pack, um, before, were you all family, or were you a community pack?”

Derek’s shoulders tighten. “Family. We had a few people bitten in when they got together with family, so we essentially had branches, and a couple of my cousins were born human with a human mother.”

“Any siblings?”

His expression goes completely blank. “No.”

Okay. Not going there. Fair enough. “So, uh, I should probably tell you, the paper I’m writing is on territory shift due to trauma, so basically all of the rest of the questions I have are about that. Like I said, you don’t have to answer any of my questions, and please feel free to tell me that it’s inappropriate or whatever. Also don’t tell Professor Stilinski I said you’re hot. Please.”

The amusement is back, which is better than that terrifying blank look on his face. “What are your questions?”

“So I guess first, can you tell me a little bit about the transition between the Beacon Hills territory and the New York territory? Did you split with Beacon Hills first, or does the switch happen once you’re in New York?”

Derek takes another drink of coffee, fingers of his free hand tapping on the table like he’s playing the piano. “To take a territory that far away, you need to give up the first territory first. Laura—my alpha—she had to split us from the territory, from Beacon Hills, first, and then we flew together to where we were setting up in New York City.”

“Do you know, uh, and you might not, if it’s hard to split away from territory? Like I know being territory-less is hard, or at least that’s what I’ve heard, but is the actually splitting process difficult?”

“Laura said it was like pulling a hook out of your chest that you want to have there, though she said it was easier because, uh, because so much of the pack was gone simultaneously. It was enough of a—” He picks up the coffee and drinks some more of it, and now Cole gets why he has such a big thing of coffee. “It was enough of a shock to the system that it wasn’t as difficult to pull out because we hadn’t readjusted yet.”

Cole writes that down, staring at it for a little longer than necessary because Derek looks like he needs a minute. Which isn’t surprising, because this is a really awful thing to talk about. And honestly Cole is surprised that he agreed to do it, but he’s not going to insult him by insinuating he can’t take care of himself. If he wants to stop, he’ll say so.

“So the trauma—you would say the trauma made the split easier? Based on what your sister said, at least?”

“The trauma?” Derek laughs, and it’s not a nice sound. “Yeah, apparently the trauma made it easier.”

This is starting to get uncomfortable, and Cole knows he should probably give up, but he kind of really wants the answer to this stuff, and if Derek’s going to keep telling him, he’s going to keep asking. “Can you, uh, can you tell me what it felt like, what the transfer felt like?”

Derek makes a noise in his throat. “No.”

Okay, fair enough. “I have a couple, um, a couple more questions. What does taking a new territory feel like? Not losing the old one, but the—I don’t know. Taking the new territory. There’s not really a good—I’ll be totally honest, I don’t really know what I’m asking.”

Derek’s jaw twitches. “Taking on a new territory—keep in mind, I’m not the alpha, so it’s likely different for me—but it feels like the ground solidifying under your feet and a blanket over your shoulders. Though New York City, it’s…unusual, in that territory isn’t quite as defined in most places. There are half a dozen packs in the city at the moment, and they—we—intersect more than in most places, and Laura is rarely actually stationed in-territory, because she is at the Pack Alliance headquarters for much of the time. It makes the territory…odd to live in and odd to settle in. Laura, uh, she hasn’t talked about it, and neither has Peter. I wasn’t particularly—” He takes another drink. “Any other questions?”

“This isn’t—you really don’t have to answer this one, because it’s more my curiosity than anything else, and it’s a kind of shitty question, but—”

“Ask.”

Right. Yep. Asking. “How did Katherine Argent get into your house?”

Derek’s hand contracts on his coffee cup hard enough for it to crumple in on itself, lid popping off. “One of Kate Argent’s charges was statutory rape.”

“Yeah, all of those proceedings were in clos—” Closed court. Because it was a minor. As were the proceedings for how she got in. Because it included a minor. A minor like Derek Hale would have been back then. “Oh, fuck.”

Derek shoves away from the table, cup crumpling in his hand, and stands. His face is half-turned, teeth elongated, and shit, he shouldn’t have asked that question. Not that he should have asked it anyway, even if he hadn’t been involved, and damn it, he really needs to learn how to keep his mouth, but he’s not going to say anything now.

Because that’s how you deal with pain, when you’re not with pack. You keep your mouth shut and you don’t mention it, because it’s unnecessary weakness to show. Humans don’t get that; humans want to pick and prod at pain after you’ve said it’s enough, want to comfort you when comfort isn’t what you want, outside of pack, want to give and take from strangers. Strangers have no place in your pain.

Derek drops the coffee cup into the trash can, and Cole can see his hand shaking, claws out, from where he’s seating. And then the werewolf stalks out of the coffee shop, and Cole puts his head down on the table, because fuck.

And then he pulls out his phone. 

Anna picks up on the first ring. “Hey, Cole. What’s up?”

Something essentially relaxes inside of him. “Hey, Anna. I—you have a second to chat?”

“I’m your alpha, Cole. When do I not have time to chat?”

“There was that time when I called you while you were having sex with—”

Anna coughs. “Yeah, okay. What’s up? You sound like you’re having a bad day.”

“I just had a kind of uncomfortable conversation and I just—Jessie’s dating a human, right?”

Anna hums, and he can hear her fingers drumming on something hard. “Yeah, she is. So? What’s going on, Cole, you’re worrying me.”

Cole doesn’t really want to talk about the conversation he just had with Derek Hale, because admitting a screw-up to his alpha is not something he likes to do. “You vetted the human, right?”

“ _Cole_.”

Right. Yes. Fine. “I just met Derek Hale.”

“Ah.” Anna exhales. “I remember that, you know. The fire scared the hell out of all of us. Talia Hale, she was an inspiration to the werewolf community. First female alpha on the Council. Her loss…any of us would have taken her kids in, but they wanted to stay together as a pack, even just the three of them.”

Cole didn’t know Anna had known so much about the Hales. It had always been him and Jessie’s pet thing, just because they thought it was interesting, but it’s also a kind of awkward thing to bring up with their alpha, so they never did. “Did you actually know Alpha Hale—former Alpha Hale—or anyone else in the pack?”

“I met Talia once, just after she took her position on the Council, and I saw her kids then, Derek and Laura and, uh…Cora, I think it was, but she was a baby then.”

So Derek had another sibling, one who didn’t make it. No wonder he didn’t want to talk about it. “Anyway, Derek, uh—Jessie’s human, they check out, right?” “

They’re not a hunter or HFU. They’re very nice. Most humans aren’t that bad.”

“I know. My, uh, my professor, the one I was telling you about a couple days ago, he’s awesome. Pack, though, so that doesn’t really count. And he’s actually dating Derek Hale. That’s…tangentially how I met him.”

“Your territory shift paper?”

“Yeah.” Cole pokes at his coffee cup, which is now cold. Awesome. “He’s—they’re the model case for that, you know. Nobody—anyway. Yeah. I just want don’t want what happened to them to happen to Jessie. I don’t want—humans are shitty, Anna. They shot up our school, and they keep ashing things, and Jessie’s too trusting.”

Cole can hear Anna’s smile when she says, “Jessie can take care of herself better than you think.”

“She’s my little sister; I want to keep her safe.”

“Don’t worry; I won’t let anything happen to her.” The doorbell rings on her end, and she says, “Oh, sorry, I have to go. Call again soon.”

“Yeah. Thanks Anna.”

“Of course.” She hangs up—her ridiculous rotary phone, because she collects rotary phones, and he loves his alpha—and he puts his phone in his pocket, standing up to throw his coffee away. He has work to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Tada. Cole. And his alpha (I hope I didn't already name his alpha and forget about it, but if I did, whoops, I'll fix that).
> 
> There will be more things, but I promised this first.


End file.
